Exciting Updates from the Past Three Years!
Dear Friends of Un poco del Chocó,
It has been quite a while since our last blog post— almost three years, to be exact! Social media, especially Instagram has become our main way of sharing news, but we wanted to take a moment to update you on the most important happenings at the reserve. From education initiatives to scientific discoveries, there’s been a lot going on!
Forest School Program in Collaboration with FONAG
In 2022, we launched a Forest School program in partnership with our Forest School Network and FONAG (Fondo para la Protección del Agua- a Non-profit based in Quito which is dedicating its conservation efforts towards the protection of hydrological resources). This initiative brought environmental education to six local primary schools, teaching students about the crucial role forests play in the hydrological cycle. By engaging young minds in hands-on learning experiences, we aim to foster a deeper appreciation for nature and conservation in future generations.
Last summer the program already went into its third year. 71 students and their teachers visited the different reserves of our forest school network (Pambiliño, Santa Lucia, Intillacta, Un poco del Chocó and Yakunina). During these experiences, they carried out various awareness-raising activities, while exploring and getting to know the local environment; educational activities related to the water cycle, macroinvertebrates, biodiversity, ecological connections, impacts and solutions. The main goal of this program is to teach students about the important relationship between water and forests. At UPDC we have elaborated a program that highlights the importance of diversity and ecological connections within a forest, focusing on birds and their habitat-use.
Conservation Investment Strategy for Resident and Migratory Birds of the Choco Andean Region in Northwest Ecuador
Also in 2022, Nicole was invited to be part of the technical committee for the selection of priority species and sites and participated a series of online workshop to elaborate an investment plan for the Ecuadorian Chocó.
The "Investment Plan" is a strategic tool developed by Aves y Conservación and BirdLife International and focuses on the conservation of priority species and areas in the Ecuadorian Chocó, a region known for its high biodiversity and endemism.
Its objective is to facilitate fundraising and the development of conservation proposals, ensuring informed decisions that generate a positive impact in the short, medium, and long term, while aligning with local realities. The technical team responsible for developing the plan was led by Manuel Sanchez and Eliana Montenegro.
The aim of this structured approach was to ensure that conservation efforts in the Ecuadorian Chocó are effective and sustainable over time.
You can read the investment plan here!
Our collaboration with EPHI concluded
Since the beginning of 2017 we collaborated in a broad international study, led by Dr. Catherine Graham (WSL, Switzerland), which investigated the Ecology of Plant-Hummingbird Interaction Networks on different altitudinal levels in the Northwest of Ecuador, Costa Rica and Brazil. The goal of the EPHI project was to quantify how interactions between hummingbirds and plants vary across elevation, land-use gradients and biogeographical regions. After five years of data collection in the reserve our collaboration ended and now the team in Zurich is busy analyzing the huge amount of data taken.
A few results have already been published, and more papers are on their way in 2025!
Advancements in Bird Banding
Nicole has been hard at work and successfully passed her NABC bird banding trainer certification in Peru in 2023! This achievement allowed us to offer more NABC endorsed bird banding workshops and two official NABC certifications in the reserve, in November 2023 and May 2024. These efforts are crucial steps in training the next generation of ornithologists and we are happy to have certified one new NABC bird bander (Christian Montalvo, our UPDC staff member) and four NABC bird banding assistants (Maria Jose Arias, Ana Melisa Fernandes, Tatiana Santander and Julian Perez). We are proud that the NABC community in Ecuador is growing, and together, we will continue to promote good practices in scientific bird banding.
Additionally, we are also offering bird banding training courses in the reserve for those who need to get more practical training before attempting a certification process (which is directed towards experienced bird banders). This past November we trained a team of Jungle Dave’s Science Foundation who will start their own monitoring program in the south of Ecuador soon, and this coming March we will be training international students who want to refine their banding and ageing skills.
Environmental education with Las Tolas school
As part of our engagement in the Forest school network, and thanks to the support of Fundación Imaymana, we received a donation of five binoculars, a spotting scope and bird identification books to continue our environmental education efforts with the local youth.
In order to test the new equipment and educational material developed by Cornell and Aves y Conservación, we planned a school visit to the Escuela General Rumiñahui in Las Tolas for one morning where we explored the common birds of Las Tolas together with ~30 students of all ages (3-12). After going for a birdwatching walk around town, we reconvened in the class room to identify all bird species we were able to observe.
New Herpetological Monitoring Efforts
We’ve also expanded our research to include herpetological monitoring. Ecuadorian student Alex Delgado conducted the first inventories in the reserve in October 2023 and February 2024 and made an incredible discovery: the presence of the Chocoan bushmaster (Lachesis acrochorda). This rare and highly venomous pit viper is the longest viper species in the world and plays an essential role in the ecosystem. Its presence highlights the biodiversity of Un poco del Chocó and underscores the importance of continued conservation efforts.
From February to May 2024, Stijn, a master student from Wageningen University, studied the assemblage of amphibians in the reserve and found some gorgeous individuals of Boana picturata, a tree frog endemic to the Chocó.
Student projects, internships and bachelor theses
Besides all those exciting events, our day-to-day activities with interns and students obviously never ceased. We hosted a couple of students for thesis projects who were supervised by Nicole and conducted their research in the reserve.
Rick from the HNEE Eberswalde in Germany spent almost six months with us, first as an intern learning about all our different aspects of research and conservation work, and then he interviewed local cattle farmers and worked on a bachelor thesis, exploring how to ecologically improve cow pastures.
Basti from Bielefeld University conducted his field research in the reserve, deploying 34 wildlife cameras to monitor the abundance and diversity of mammal and bigger ground birds at Un poco del Chocó. He got very nice footage of jaguarundi, pumas, ocelots, as well as Berlepsch’s tinamou and Purple Quail Dove. Unfortunately, a lot of the cameras also recorded dogs around the reserve’s trails, a huge problem that we’ve been having in the past couple of years since more people have moved into the area.
Katja from HHU University of Düsseldorf studied the nesting behavior of different birds in the reserve and observed nests of Lanceolated Monklets, Ecuadorian Thrush, Slate-colored Redstarts, Gray-breasted Woodwren, Three-striped Warbler and Common Pauraque.
The nesting monklets were spotted several times perching on a vine right in front of their nest cavity which made for really good photo opportunities.
These are really just a few of the exciting developments we’ve been working on. Stay tuned for more updates on our current projects—we can’t wait to share what’s next!
Thank you for your continued support, The Un poco del Chocó Team
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